Day 12: Arc de Triomphe

This morning we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe (click for info).  It's over 150 feet tall and was built in the early 1800s.  As you probably know, there's a traffic circle around the arc with 12 different roads merging and the traffic is ridiculous.  Luckily there's a tunnel for pedestrians to get to the Arc.  Normally it is possible to get to the top of the Arc and the view is supposed to be quite excellent, but it was closed when we were there due to a strike.

While I'm on the subject... apparently strikes are quite common in French life.  But strikes don't mean something will definitely be closed - rather, they mean it might be closed, or it might open late, or it might close early, or it might just close briefly in the middle of the day.  You never know.  We heard from another couple that the Louvres opened several hours late the morning they tried to go because of a strike.  The uncertainty is very annoying.  There was a Metro strike while we were there, which luckily was on the day we had our bus tour so it didn't affect us.  Our tour guide told us the strike was because the workers currently have 37 hour work weeks, but they want 35 hours (which is getting more and more common in France, as I understand).

You can see the fun traffic in the two pictures below.  As we were standing at the base of the Arc, I was half-mesmerized by all of the cars zipping around me in a circle and trying to imagine what it must have been like over 150 years ago when the Arc was built.  I also tried to imagine what they would think if you took someone from 150 years ago and somehow brought them to the present time, and stood them there under the Arc, which would be familiar to them, with all of these bizarre vehicles zooming around making weird noises and stinking up the place with their exhaust.

This gives you an idea of just how big the Arc is:

We were amused by how banged up this sign over a tunnel going under the Arc was:

Here are some nighttime pictures of the Arc I took on a different day:

There were quite a few motorcycles and scooters around Paris - more than in the U.S., but not as many as in Rome.  I thought this vehicle was cool, a covered scooter: